The present invention relates to a separating module for a ventilation device of an internal combustion engine, wherein the ventilation device is embodied for discharging a gas flow, laden with liquid particles, from a component of an internal combustion engine, in particular a compressor, for instance a compressed air compressor, for example a screw compressor, of an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine may be, for instance, a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine, for instance a large engine having an output of at least 1,000 kW. In particular, the present invention relates to a separating module for a crankcase ventilation system (CV) of the internal combustion engine. The separating module comprises a housing that surrounds a separating element embodied for separating the liquid particles from the gas flow.
The present invention furthermore relates to a line module configured to be used with such a separating module and to a ventilation device for discharging from an internal combustion engine a gas flow laden with liquid particles; for separating the liquid particles from the gas flow; and for returning the separated liquid particles to the internal combustion engine, especially to the crankcase ventilation system.
In reciprocating piston internal combustion engines, oil-containing leakage gas, so-called blow-by, is present in the crankcase. Its return into the combustion process is legally mandated worldwide and takes place in so-called closed crankcase ventilation systems. In addition to separating oil, a crankcase ventilation system includes other significant components, such as e.g. a pressure control valve, depending on the ventilation concept. The most important tasks of a crankcase ventilation system are thus separating oil and returning oil to the crankcase, as well as possibly regulating crankcase pressure.
EP 1 718 392 B1 discloses an air dryer unit with two air-oil separators, wherein these two air-oil separators may be removably fixed in the air dryer unit by means of a flange portion. The flange portion comprises a common unfiltered air supply line and a common clean air discharge line for the two air-oil separators. The separated oil is adsorbed in a filter medium, made of aramid fiber material, of the air-oil separator. Thus with this air dryer unit it is not possible to return the oil separated in the air-oil separator to an engine attached to the air dryer unit.
A combination having a plurality of air dryer units is disclosed in EP 1 967 251 B1. Two of these air dryer units are associated with a flange segment and have a common unfiltered air supply line and a common clean air discharge line. For supplying unfiltered air and discharging clean air, the individual flange segments are themselves attached to a common unfiltered air supply line and to a common clean air discharge line.
A separating module of the aforementioned kind is disclosed in DE 44 29 822 A1. This separating module is embodied as an annular coalescer and associated with a modular device for separating oil from aerosol. To be able to adapt this device to desired operating conditions, DE 44 29 822 A1 suggests creating as an adapter element a flange part embodied for attaching the housing of the separating module. Connection lines for supplying and discharging the air and for other flange parts may be arranged on this adapter element. When there are a plurality of flange parts arranged one after another, their channels for supplying and discharging the air are connected to one another. The flange parts do not have a common channel for returning the oil separated in the separating module to an engine attached to the device for separating oil aerosol from air. Instead, for returning oil, a discrete oil return line is attached to each individual separating module (FIGS. 1, 2, and column 3, lines 39 through 45, of DE 44 29 822 A1).
In the oil separator disclosed in FIG. 1 of DE 44 29 822 A1, the air to be de-oiled flows via an inlet 19 (reference number relates to DE 44 29 822 A1) and distributor channels 20 into an outer chamber 21 arranged between the filter medium and the housing 14 of the oil separators 11, 12. In the device disclosed in DE 44 29 822 A1, the unfiltered air travels to the oil separators 11, 12 via this outer chamber 21 and a channel arranged in an adapter element 10. With a plurality of oil separators connected one directly after another, the unfiltered air therefore must pass through all of the outer chambers 21 of the preceding oil separators until it enters the last arranged oil separator.
DE 44 29 822 A1 discloses an embodiment, depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 of DE 44 29 822 A1, to make it possible, simply by coupling additional flange parts, to have parallel connection of any desired number of oil separating elements and thus to be able to adapt the device for separating oil from an oil-air mixture to any conceivable operating condition. In this embodiment, each line module comprises two inlet openings 23, 30 (reference numbers relate to DE 44 29 822 A1) for supplying air or an oil-air mixture and two outlet openings 31, 32 for discharging air or an oil-air mixture (FIG. 3 and paragraph 3, lines 2 through 11, of DE 44 29 822 A1). In addition, each line module has a third opening that forms an area of the housing of the separating module and surrounds the filter element of the separating module (FIG. 2 of DE 44 29 822 A1).
The object of the invention is to further develop a separating module of the aforementioned kind, a line module of the aforementioned kind, and a crankcase ventilation system of the aforementioned kind such that the latter is constructed in a compact manner, is variably adaptable to different operating conditions, and reliably provides a high degree of separation. Preferably any number of separating modules may be combined with one another. In particular, the number of separating modules of the crankcase ventilation system should be variable as desired and the crankcase ventilation system should be able to be attached simply and rapidly to a component of a machine, for instance of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine.